Kermu Investigation
Overview of Kermu Who is Kermu? That is the question. The account on Scratch (namely, of course, @Kermu) was created sometime around early November and possibly late October. The screenshot below was taken on December the 10th of 2019, wherein the listed date of the creation was "1 month, 1 week ago". Due to the imperfect dating system of Scratch, this could put the creation anywhere between October 28th - November 3rd. Here are some of the basic "Kermu Truths" that can be gathered: -He is anti war -He claims to have known Seany, however this is debated -He is a Protestant -He was unaware of Anarx (and thus likely the entire 2nd Great Mapper War) -He wasn't aware of Daybreak's actions -He has two known fandom accounts: -One is the DeathStranding account, his most proactive, which joined the smc wiki on December the 3rd. -The other is his DeathWalker122 account, which became active on the wiki much earlier (on November the 26th) and became his backup after getting blocked. -He believes that the SMC is filled with hate Context Surrounding This is a section that talks mainly about the context surrounding events at the time of Kermu's birth on Scratch, the period between October 20th and November 20th, as well as the following events. This section is a w.i.p. Actions This part is practically a biographical feature on Kermu, listing everything he is known to have done and noting down key points for evidence. This section is also a w.i.p. The Gaumont Theory An early rationalisation of events was the Gaumont Theory, which would postulate that after the humiliation of three consecutive defeats, Gaumont set his plan into motion. Based on the timeline of events, he could have been planning this as far back as the 1st War on Gaumont, or any time between the 1st and 2nd Wars. Evidence For Ever since the early days on The Future of Scratches Wiki, GaumontBross was always the butt of the joke, and indeed perhaps rightfully so. It was, however, never expected that war would break out over it. Enjania declared war on him, starting the 1st war On Gaumont in order to kick his arse. Later on, the 2nd War would kick up, around the time of the creation of Kermu account, and we see that gaumont is all too keen to join up. Previously, he had even created his own "anti-Enjania League" (population: himself), so it is likely that the SMCAP was an extension of that ideal. Evidence Against Despite early popularity, this theory has since floundered, such as in Kermu's typographical style being completely dissimilar to Gaumont, as well as conversations such as this: -image to be added- It would be a lot of work for Gaumont to place such a misleading piece of evidence on an obscure site just in case anyone came a knocking. He is also talking to a friend from outside the SMC in the latter half of the conversation, someone who he would have no reason to lie to. Considering the convoluted mental gymnastics one would need to perform in order to make this work in theory, we can almost assuredly say that Kermu is not Gaumont. There are also other factors, such as Kermu apparently being unaware of the true nature of Daybreak, as well as Kermu not knowing about Anarx, both of which gaumont lived through and saw in the SMC. Evaluation of the Theory In accordance with the evidence the timeline for this theory would go like this: During the 2nd War on Gaumont, Gaumont decides that enough is enough. He creates the Kermu account shortly thereafter. He marks NJ and Oasis down as his first targets, the two of them being both large and influential mappers, as well as some of his biggest enemies. Over the course of the month he scouts for anyone who would join his cause. In the end only his main account and Ecce are interested. Renland is also marked down for taking the hate on Gaumont too far. Gaumont gives up, having realised he can't win, and tries to slide the incident away from memory, moving on in hopes that nobody may find out. ---- Overall, this theory, while easy, has too many errors and hole to work with, and can thus be given a low 4% likeliness rating. The Case Against NrCookie Now we come to what I (luigi888) view as our golden Kermu: NrCookie. NrCookie is a relatively recent mapper, with his main account only in the mapping community for about 2 moths now. His older, NrMuffin account - from which his YT channel draws it's name - dates back perhaps to October of 2018, long after many famous events important. I shall present the evidence for the case as following: To understand the case against NrCookie one must first grasp the place he came from; he stumbled across the SMC through his roleplaying on countryballs. He had a few Scratch friends, such as @TheReal_JiMMY, @jediminecraft and @-Ecce-. As he became more involved in the community his friends learnt of the SMC and followed vaguely what NrCookie did there (for instance following his mapper studio like jediminecraft does). One might ask themselves the following - for what reason could he possibly want to destroy the Scratch Mapping Community? Well, we could search for any number of motives, for example the century motive, as I have dubbed it: This screenshot shows NrCookie being denied legitimate recognition as a century mapper, something he is fairly miffed about. Now, this alone would not be enough to tip someone over the edge. As a matter of fact, this event occurred sometime perhaps in mid November, however is very unlikely to have happened before the creation of the Kermu account. Of course, with the Kermu account being created quite near the start of NrCookie's SMC career, it may well be that the account wasn't initially intended for being the face of the SMCAP, however was simply used for that purpose in retrospect. I postulate a different idea however. NrCookie's main account on the wiki is NrCookieMapping. This account made it's first contribution (the creation of NrCookie's wiki page) on November the 3rd. During the exact timeframe of the creation of Kermu's Scratch account. This goes further. The last contribution this NrCookieMapping account was on November the 28th. 5 days later, and 1 month following November the 3rd, the account DeathStranding*gaggle of numbers* first appeared on the wiki. Kermu's other known wiki account first appeared on the 26th of November, 2 days before the final contribution of NrCookieMapping. short sidenote, the earliest wiki SMC activity I could find was on the SMC archive Wiki, when on the 31st of October, the NrCookie wiki account created his own page, which is, as of writing, still not finished. Now, based on this thus far, our timeline would suggest that in late October NrCookie started mapping, and on November the 3rd, when he came onto the wiki, something made him want to destroy the SMC. So far, however, this is based only on a string of convoluted dates, and there is little in the way of meaty evidence. So let's go through some. NrCookie, and of course Kermu, joined the community during a month-long span, October the 20th through to November the 20th. During this period, there were 5 wars. Granted, 3 of these were joke wars, so NrCookie may not have taken these seriously. The other two were the War on Renland, and the crown jewel, the 2nd War on Gaumont. This timeframe was a period where more and more wars seemed to be occurring. The reasons for this are numerous, including a cultural shift where the new mappers had settled in and were now accepted members of the community. These new members hadn't learnt the lessons of 2018, and the wars from The Potato War to the 3rd Great Mapper War. This era was symptomatic of change in culture, and indeed, in the case of even the 1st War On Gaumont which had happened earlier, a change in sensibilities. Wars had become less prevalent and were thus more understandable, hence older users such as Enjania, who had seen the twilight days of the Golden Era, going off to war with fellow mappers. This would all be clear to an experienced user who saw all the happenings of the SMC even from as late as August, and for that new wave of mappers there was learning going on. However this new wave had come before NrCookie. It would make sense for NrCookie to see the wars as a far larger problem than they actually were, and would explain the hyperbolic proclamation of the "Scratch War Community" by Kermu. Then came the continued hate towards Gaumont, including but not limited to the entire 3rd War On Gaumont. Even I found myself feeling a little sorry for the poor bastard, but where someone like me saw someone who had done wrong now being wronged, someone like NrCookie would only see the latter half. The rantings of SMC culture by Kermu could only have come from a mind new to this community, someone like NrCookie. This is no mere speculation or jab at Kermu either, it's a downright fact that he is fairly new to this world of the SMC (just like NrCookie). Sure, he knew about Seany10, but that's nigh basic information for everyone who visits the wiki once. But when he talked about Daybreak, he didn't actually know what they did. He was surprised when he learned of their actual actions. Or even the basics of a major war. When told that his ideas weren't original and were basically just copy-catting Anarx, he would reply that he didn't know who Anarx was until told. Quite simply, this is not a user from the olden days of the Future of Scratches, this is a new and uninformed user with a chip on his shoulder and pity for Gaumont. And NrCookie fits that role like a damned glove. Other details match as well. Kermu is an outspoken Protestant. NrCookie is a well-done Chrsitian claiming to be a member of the Baptist denomination. Those two things are much more similar than they perhaps initially sound, just so you know. The Kermu account was created around the same time as NrCookie's SMC entry. And when NrCookie's wiki activies die off, Kermu's pick up intensely. Now, let's take a look at the timeline of events and the actions of Kermu, to see if they can give us any links to NrCookie (spoiler alert: they can). Kermu's first known victim was OasisMapping. I know of no grudge between NrCookie and Oasis, but this isn't important. What many people overlook is that what Kermu says incriminates him greatly, all the time, and the next piece of evidence after this might fully convince you all. Kermu explains his strategy simply; get rid of the top-ranking mappers, throw the community into havock, then pick off any lingering threats. The banning of Oasis was also quite over-effective, and full top secret insider information here, nearly started a war. It all sounds a bit silly now, but there was enough of a stir, thanks in part to people pointing the blame at others, that a war was being planned in secret. On December the 5th, Enjania was banned, and not a week later, the Kermu Scare would kick off. But that one piece of information leads to a shocking discovery. We know that Kermu helped get NJ banned, but how? First, we need to go back to December the 10th. The scare kicks off. Kermu attempts to recruit many to his SMCAP, but only 2 accepted. One is, as well know, Gaumont, who was quick to join in on this opportunity for revenge. But the other was rather peculiar. The user @-ECCE-. Here was their conversation: This sole decision by Kermu may be the smoking gun that connects him to NrCookie. Now, your first thought here would obviously be, "why the fuck have they just incriminated themselves and admitted to getting NJ banned?". But perhaps your next thought is along the lines of "who the fuck is ecce?". You're not alone. But if your name was, say, NrCookie, you would know Ecce as a friend close enough to be on a first name basis. NrCookie and Ecce know eachother in real life, not as those names, but as Denis and Philip. But do you know who doesn't know who Ecce is? Anyone else in the SMC! It makes no sense why Ecce would want to destroy the SMC unless it was because his good friend NrCookie asked him to. And just look at the choice of language. Kermu knows that Ecce reported Enj, when this information had never existed before. The fact is that whoever Kermu is knows Ecce, and that is a short list of people, at least a short list of people who would also give a damn about the SMC. Finally, we get the end of the story. Kermu declared that he had left. "I've moved on" he said. At just about the same time, NrCookie also says he's leaving. What does he claim? "I've moved on." Now, obviously, this could all just mean that it was one of NrCookie's friends. The finger has of course been pointed at jediminecraft multiple times, and when his description has an inexplicable "anti-SMC" written on it, it's easy to see why. That which was applied to NrCookie could maybe be applied to jediminecraft. But when looking through the evidence, and looking at what makes more sense in the way of history and motive, a clear picture paints itself. Which is why I currently believe that Kermu was NrCookie. ---- That was a pain in the arse but now that all the evidence is gathered in one place I can rest easy. I didn't even write out the mean-spirited hacking charges. That can be a separate investigation I suppose. Category:Investigations